Ground Orange Chicken is made in one pan and only takes 20 minutes using a Panda Express copycat sauce. So much healthier than the original!
Ground Orange Chicken was born in my head one evening about a month ago when we were preparing Korean Ground Beef as we have for years. I had a package of ground chicken and I was about to suggest making Korean Ground Chicken when I thought, “ooooorrrrrrrrrrrrr….” and a whole new world of ideas came flooding into my head. In the last month we’ve made them in four different flavors (which are all coming soon).
This Ground Orange Chicken is amazing because it still has the crisp texture because we brown it well before breaking the chicken apart and it still has that amazing Panda Express Orange Chicken Sauce that we all love. The only thing missing is the deep fat frying. Plus it takes literally 20 minutes to make, and that is at a leisurely pace. Maybe we can start a write in campaign to Panda Express and say hey, make this version for when we want the sauce but not the breading!
Set your rice to cook in the rice cooker, start cooking the chicken, and wash and cut up some broccoli to steam in the microwave (glass bowl, a bit of water and a wet paper towel over the top for 3 minutes). By the time the rice is done cooking, so is dinner.
Want more Chinese Food Recipes?
- Honey Orange Firecracker Shrimp
- Cheesecake Factory Mandarin Cashew Chicken
- PF Chang’s Orange Peel Chicken
- California Pizza Kitchen’s Kung Pao Chicken Spaghetti
- General Tso’s Chicken
- Easy Mongolian Beef
- Panda Express Recipes… every single one in fact: Panda Express Recipes Index
- Many more Chinese food options…
Tools Used in the making of the Ground Orange Chicken:
Wok: Great for high heat, quick cooking. This wok is a great addition to your kitchen if you love cooking Chinese food or stir fries in general.
Large Frying Pan: I use this Cuisinart for most of my non cast iron cooking unless I am going with a stainless steel option, then I choose my All Clad.
Soy Sauce: Nothing much to say here except Kikkoman has the best flavor overall and I always recommend reduced sodium.
Sesame Oil: The flavor of sesame oil in this dish is unmistakeable and not really able to be substituted. Some Asian grocery stores will try and sell less expensive options that aren’t actually sesame oil, so just be sure the one you’re buying is authentic sesame oil.
Rice Wine: Adds an authentic flavor to the sauce, in a pinch if you absolutely can’t find it you can substitute white wine, but it will make it taste slightly different.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 tablespoons ginger root minced
- 2 teaspoons garlic minced
- 1/4 tsp hot red chili pepper crushed
- 1 tablespoon rice wine
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 4 teaspoons soy sauce
- 5 tablespoons sugar
- 5 tablespoons white vinegar
- zest of ½ orange
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- To make the sauce combine the rice wine, 2 tablespoons water, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, white vinegar, and orange zest.
- To make the cornstarch mixture, dissolve 1 tablespoon cornstarch in the remaining 1 tablespoon of water and set aside.
- To a large pan add 1 tablespoon oil and ground chicken.
- Cook until a good crust forms before breaking apart, then finish cooking by breaking it apart with a spatula and cooking for an additional 2-3 minutes.
- Once the chicken is cooked add the ginger, garlic and crushed red pepper and cook for about 10 seconds.
- Add the orange sauce and bring to boil.
- Add the cornstarch mixture to the pan and cook for just a few seconds, stirring until it thickens.
Video
Nutrition
This is my go to for sorta Chinese. We love this chicken and I serve it with rice and steamed broccoli. I have made this more times than I can remember!
Love hearing this Laura. Thanks so much.
Made this tonight. It was 5 stars! Delicious ?
This was amazing! Doubled the sauce. I had to substitute the rice wine with mirin and the fresh ginger with 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger. Only used 8 tablespoons of sugar and accidentally used low salt soy sauce. Looking forward to making this again with the original ingredients.
Great job improvising on the spot as needed Patty! Thank you for the 5 star review.
The orange chicken is easy to prepare and very tasty. However 5 tbs of sugar is by far too much. I used 2 tbs and it was still a bit sweet. Next time I will only use 1 or 1/2 tbs. With that change a good, simple and tasty recipe.
I definitely did something wrong. I read other reviews and cut the sugar but oh my gosh it was so tart it was barely edible. We don’t like overly sweet things at all so I followed the suggestion to cut in half the sugar and I cannot say for sure that’s the issue but it was terrible. We ate it because it smelled good and it was a fair amount of ingredients to just toss but half way through, we had to call it done.
I will never even attempt this recipe again.
I am not a novice cook but I went wrong big time on this and it’s not worth trying it again. My poor family tried
I wouldn’t eat it either if I cut the sugar amount in half. Yikes.
I’m wondering if you used rice vinegar instead of rice wine like I just realized I did.
Rice Wine: Adds an authentic flavor to the sauce, in a pinch if you absolutely can’t find it you can substitute white wine, but it will make it taste slightly different.
Really good! I did use less sugar but added in juice from the zested orange. I also doubled the liquids in the sauce because I steamed broccoli to go along. Topped with sambal and sirarcha. Quick to come together!
Sounds yummy.
The orange zest adds so much flavour. Served it with jasmine rice and a veggie stirfry. YUM!
So glad you enjoyed the chicken, Jennifer and thank you for the 5 stars!
This was great, even the kids enjoyed it! I used fresh squeezed Orange juice instead of water – was very good! Sweetness was fine for us, We had a bit of soy sauce drizzled over top of the chicken and rice. Thank you!
Fresh squeezed orange juice sounds amazing. Thank you for the 5 star review Andrea!
Love this! Simple, fast and very tasty! Only problem is that it doesn’t make enough for seconds if feeding three adults. I always want seconds!
This is good but wow is it sweet. I think I’ll leave 1-2 tablespoons of sugar out next time. I think I’d prefer a little more tang from the vinegar than overly sweet.
I make this at least twice month …easy and delicious! Thanks for a great recipe!
You’re welcome Sarah! And thank you for the 5 star rating!
Delicious!!
It was delicious and so easy! I will definitely be making this again. The only thing I will do differently is double the sauce. My husband and I like a lot of sauce with rice.
Great to hear and thanks so much for the 5 star rating Robbie!
Can you use rice vinegar instead of rice wine?
Kayla, I don’t recommend it because rice vinegar and rice wine are both made with fermented rice. However, the vinegar undergoes additional processing steps to remove alcohol and produce acetic acid. These processing differences create dramatically different products that are used for different purposes. Thank you for asking and let us know how you liked the Ground Orange Chicken!
Didn’t have an orange but a lemon on hand…zested it and was still good. Thanks for sharing!
Great idea and super resourceful! Thanks for the 4 stars!
I would like to make this but I’m confused about the ‘rice wine’. The link takes me to a white wine, and people in the comments said that rice wine is sake… so what is it that is asking for? White wine or sake? And I haven’t seen any replies to the comments so I’m hoping someone replies to this. Thanks!
Hi! It’s Rice Cooking Wine that is clear (Michiu (Rice Cooking Wine)- 750ml (Pack of 1) by QIAN HU) or if you’d prefer, simply use white wine that you have on hand.
Hope that helps!
Enjoy!
We double the orange sauce and cornstarch portion and it is perfect!! PS don’t forget to start the rice FIRST if you make real rice.
Omg!!! New favorite in my house!! So easy and delicious.
This was delicious!
Delicious, but next time I will double the sauce.
I made this tonight with sugar substitute and arrowroot powder to make it more carb friendly and it was spot on! We will definitely make again.
I just made this for dinner! Very tasty! Only had ground ginger and ground Turkey. I accidentally used rice vinegar instead of rice wine. I think my subs may have caused a lack of color in the sauce. Wasn’t pretty but tasted great!
I was pleasantly surprised how well this turned out, especially for the amount of work that went into it. Based on other comments, I initially added less sugar but after tasting it, the soy and vinegar combo was potent and I think it needed the full amount of sugar to balance things out. Serve it with brown rice and steamed broccoli and you have yourself a pretty quick, marginally healthy, tasty little meal. Thanks for the recipe!
My husband said this is a keeper. Just made for dinner with jasmine rice… very good. Wasn’t sure as I rarely use ground chicken, but the combination of spices and flavorings made it tasty. Easy to prep and quick to cook. Thanks for sharing.
I was going to make this recipe tonight and wanted to verify that it is really 5 tablespoons of white vinegar? That seems like a lot.
So good – my husband says it’s one of his favorites and it’s so easy. I do cut sugar in half and substitute the 2.5 tbsp of missing sugar with orange juice from zested orange and it is still great!
So good – my husband says it’s one of his favorites and it’s so easy. I do cut sugar in half and substitute the 2.5 tbsp of missing sugar with orange juice from zested orange and it is still great!
Instead of chicken I used pork.
Instead of water I used the juice from the orange.
Very good
We enjoyed this recipe, but for my household will make a few tweaks next time. Will add some veggies that give it a crunch factor and decrease the amount of sugar in sauce significantly, much too sweet for our taste buds.
Has anyone tried freezing this?
Can I replace corn starch with flour?
While cornstarch shouldn’t be used as a substitute for flour in baked goods, you can easily substitute it in for flours when coating fried chicken, fish or other dishes. Not only will cornstarch work in the same way that flours do, but it will hold up better against sauces and absorb less of the frying oil.
Made tonight with a few changes and it was delicious. I used ground turkey instead of chicken just because that’s all I could find. I also didn’t have rice wine so just substituted it with water. I doubled the sauce and added more red pepper flakes and some juice from the orange. Stirred in some broccoli and serve over rice. Would definitely make again!
The only changes I made..doubled the orange sauce & added orange juice.
Very good!,
OMG I doubled the sauce and this is fantastic!
Im surprised at your carb count (18 grams) with 5 tablespoons of sugar in this recipe!
I don’t make the nutritional count, it’s part of the program that the recipe is typed into, but it is per serving.
Wow tasty, we doubled the recipe, served with roasted brussel sprouts!
Made this tonight with a few substitutions: used the juice and zest from oranges from my tree, used ground turkey instead of chicken (what we had in the house), used less sugar, didn’t have sake so I omitted it, and added a touch of Chinese five spice, cilantro, white onion and scrambled eggs. I probably can’t say I used your recipe now ?, but it inspired me. My husband and I loved it regardless. Thanks so much for sharing.
Would like to try
Sounds delicious but wondering if you using white ground chicken or dark?
I have white on hand
Ty
Oh my!!!! Sooo good! Next time I won’t put in so much red pepper. I will cut in half. I also added cashews and green onion. Served on white rice with broccoli and pineapple on cottage cheese as a side. Yum!
I have made this recipe several times, we love it. I make it as written, without any changes.
Made this tonight. Doubled the sauce and was fantastic. Will be my go too!
What is the temperature of the pan for cooking? Med hi? Thank you!
Made it just as it is written, it was a fabulous dinner easy and tasty
This was delicious! We used turkey instead of chicken because it was on sale. Also, in making a double batch, we used 1/4 cup of sugar total. At 5 Tbsp per batch, the more than 1/2 cup called for would have been far more than we would have needed or cared for.
This recipe was perfect! I was trying to think what i could make with my ground chicken and came across this recipe. I couldn’t find the Rice Wine at grocery stores, oy Rice Vinegar which it says it isn’t good to substitute these. I went with Sherry Wine instead. Thanks so much!
Sabrina. Rice wine is Sake. Is this what you used? Would rice wine vinegar be a substitute for white vinegar? Just mixed the sauce. Smells wonderful. Thank you
Amazing recipe. The sauce was great. I cut down the vinegar about to about 70% since we don’t like it too sour and it was delicious. Would make again.
This has become a family favorite. It’s so yummy and I’m amazed at how the orange zest flavors it so well and makes it smell oh so good when cooking! I do use rice vinegar in place of the rice wine. From the ideas below, I am going to sub a little fresh squeezed orange juice for a couple of tablespoons of the vinegars next time for fun. I highly suggest making extra. You’ll want leftovers!
What is the serving size?
Would like to try
Sounds delicious but wondering if you using white ground chicken or dark?
I have white on hand
Ty
This is the bomb. Thank you so much, I’m making it again tonight.
Always enjoy your recipes and this one surely did not disappoint. Awesome and very flavorful. Thank you so much for sharing!
This was great and so much healthier than restaurant orange chicken. I wish I would’ve had the rice wine to make this with, but I’ll get it for the next time. Thank you:)
After reading reviews on this recipe, I decided to use the juice of the orange as well as the zest and I’m glad that I did. I think without the juice, it would have been a little bland. I also added shredded carrots, white onion, and topped with cilantro. Definitely will be making this recipe again!
Did not taste orange at all the first time. Tried this recipe again, but modified it significantly after reading many other comments about adding orange juice (I added over half a cup) and added 1 Tbsp of hoisin sauce instead of the white vinegar (personal preference) and added more red crushed pepper after cooking and not tasting any heat…didn’t measure that out, just sprinkled it on top. I think this recipe is a decent starting point, it just didn’t taste like any orange chicken I’ve ordered before, and was lacking the addition of any vegetables!
This was excellent. I almost didn’t add the full amount of sugar but so glad I trusted the author. My boyfriend said, “better than anything I’ve had in a Chinese restaurant.” Doubled the amount of chili flakes because we love spice. I think if someone calls this recipe bland they might not have made it right. Try it!